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Michael Waltrip to race for Swan Racing at Daytona 500: Waltrip to bump Swan's regular driver, David Stremme, for February race

January 9, 2013

Michael Waltrip, owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, plans to drive in the Daytona 500 for a rival team. Photo by L:AT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Two-time winner Michael Waltrip will do a one-off with rookie NASCAR owner Brandon Davis and Swan Racing for the Feb. 24 Daytona 500. As a driver for someone else, Waltrip will be competing against three cars from his own Michael Waltrip Racing: the Toyotas of Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr. and Mark Martin.

The 2001 and 2003 Daytona 500 winner will drive the No. 30 Toyota for the startup Swan Racing team. He'll work with crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and Steve Hmiel, the team's director of competition. “I'm thrilled to drive for Swan Racing and have a chance to win a third Daytona 500,” Waltrip said on Thursday. “Reuniting with Tony Jr. and Steve [who both have worked with him in the past] brings back a lot of good memories, and it'll create new ones.”

David Stremme, the team's regular driver, took the high road at being bumped from the year's biggest race. “This is a great move for Swan Racing,” he said. “Michael and I have been friends for a long time. We talked last year, and, from my perspective, I thought this would help to further our relationship with Toyota and be a good building block for Swan Racing.”

Davis owns Swan Energy, a North Carolina-based oil and gas company. He bought the assets of Inception Racing late last summer, and his first race was in Richmond in September. In it, Stremme ran less than half the 400-lap race before parking.

Davis vows that his team will not start and park.

“I literally almost got sick [about that],” Davis said last month. “I couldn't stand watching it. I'm a competitive person and I'm not going to the track to not try to win. I respect start-and-park programs and understand why teams do it. It's a matter of survival and teams trying to build something. It's just not the way I'm going to build my team.”

Swan Racing did not come to Daytona International Speedway for the year's first Sprint Cup test.